A Twist In My Story (open)

Allison was wandering aimlessly, eventually planning on going back to the common room. But she didn't want to go back just yet. She was bored, which was something she hated being. The only problem was, she was also a bit of a loner. Her brother was the closest thing that she had to a friend, and he was always busy planning pranks and causing trouble.

She missed her home, but she liked Hogwarts just as well. She wrote to her parents at least once a week, just to keep them update. Not that there was much to be updated on. Allison was lost, and she desperately wanted to be found. She had lost herself in her thoughts, and she wandered right into someone. "I'm so sorry," she said, not bothering to look at them. She just crouched to the ground to pick up the books that she had dropped.

Ian yawned and shook himself slightly out of his daze. He hadn't been able to sleep a lot last night and the whole day, running from one lesson to the next, had not helped his exhaustion at all.
And even his plan to go to bed early had been forfeit when their history professor had given them a three feet homework for the next day.

Now, with his essay savely in his bag and a book under his arm, Ian was slowly strolling back to the Hufflepuff common room when suddenly he walked straight into someone else. Repeating his apology several times, he quickly dropped to the ground to help picking up the books the other student had lost. "I'm so sorry, I really don't know where my head is tonight." he said honestly.

Allison shook her head, smiling a little. "It's fine," she said. "I was just a bit distracted, I guess." Allison gathered all of her books together and stood back up. "I'm Allison," she said, holding her hand out. She hadn't seen the boy before, so she figured that it would be polite to introduce herself.

Ian smiled at the girl in front of him, glad that she didn't seem to be one of those girls that got bitchy right away when something happened. "Yeah me, too. Long day." he agreed, running a hand through his hair.
"I'm Ian." he introduced himself and shook her hand. "I'm one of the new ones here." he told her chuckling.

Allison raised her eyebrows. She wouldn't have guessed that he was older than her, not younger. "Nice to meet you," she said. "I hope you haven't had too much trouble here." Allison knew that some people handled their first year at Hogwarts better than others. She had done pretty well as far as grades went, but that was no surprise. But she had given up her social life to do well in class.

Ian's green eyes lit up at that and he shook his head, laughing lightly. "Oh no! No trouble at all." he told her, still chuckling. "I usually stay out of trouble if I can. And the classes here are so interesting, even if the teachers could be a bit more lenient with homework sometimes." he grumbled, thinking of history.
"What about you? Are you a trouble maker?" Ian asked her teasingly, although she really didn't look like that. Most Ravenclaws were too smart to get in trouble anyway or so he had been told.

Allison laughed slightly. "Nope, my brother does enough of that for the both of us," she said with a smile. Adastros was the polar opposite of his sister, but they had a bond that no one would understand, even if they hated each other sometimes. "I'm the typical Ravenclaw smartie, I suppose." Allison enjoyed being one of the smartest people she knew, even if that limited the number of people that she knew.

Ian inclined his head slightly in thought as he watched the girl in front of him. "Who is your brother again?" he asked, thinking that maybe he had met him in one of his lessons before. Especially in potions there had been quite a few troublemakers after all.

"I have a brother as well, but he's just eight..." he mentioned, thinking of little James fondly. "But we actually are a lot alike. We're both the typical Hufflepuff, I guess. Friendly, calm, loyal." Ian smirked at Allison. "Though, I also love to read and study." he added with a wink. Most people often underestimated Hufflepuffs because they didn't raise their hand so often in class, but that didn't mean that they enjoyed studying as well.

"His name's Adastros. He's a Gryffindor," she explained. Adastros did have a bit of a reputation, so she wouldn't be surprised if Ian knew him. Allison on the other hand was practically a ghost. Most people didn't know she existed.

Allison was slightly surprised when he said that he enjoyed studying. She didn't see that one coming. "I don't know if I enjoy the studying, or just the knowledge. I like to know how to deal with every type of situation, you know?" she said. It was ironic, since Allison had no idea how to handle the situation that she was currently in. Making friends wasn't something she was good at.

Ian had to stiffle a laugh when she mentioned her brother's name. He did remember the boy from potions after all. He was the one outraged when Professor Snape had taken so many points from Gryffindor. "I met him..." he only said, still smiling. "You truely are quite different from him."
Raising his brow slightly, Ian showed his surprise. He thought that all Ravenclaws were studying all the time, but maybe that was just the prejudice one had of that house.
"I see. Well I think that's a good goal in life. To try to be able to deal with situations as they come." he agreed. "I just love to learn new things. That's why I was looking forward to going to Hogwarts so much, you know? And even now I know that I will love potions!" he told her eagerly. "Do you like potions as well?"

Allison nodded. "We're definitely opposites, then again, sometimes we're too alike for our own good. It just depends on the day," she said. Adastros was the only person that had seen all of the sides of Allison's personality, mostly because he was the only person that could bring everything out of her.

Allison smiled while the boy spoke about school. He seemed to enthusiastic about learning, and she was happy to find someone who felt the same way as she did. He seemed to go against most of the stereotypes that were held for a Hufflepuff, but she was sure there was still Hufflepuff traits in him somewhere. "Absolutely!" she said when he asked about potions. "Though, Professor Snape isn't my favorite. He's a bit frightening, at times."

Laughing a bit, Ian nodded his head in agreement. "Oh definitely! The first time I saw him in the great hall he already looked quite intimidating, but during lessons he is even worse" he said, remembering how the man always seemed to tower over everyone and glare all the time. "But I still enjoyed his lesson a lot. I think, as long as he doesn't notice you in a negative way, he's a good teacher." he added, smirking.

Maybe not a nice teacher, but Ian had no doubt that he could learn a lot from the Potion Master.
"What about you, Allison? Do you have a favourite subject?" he asked the Ravenclaw girl. So far he only had a couple of lessons, so he couldn't yet judge which would be good or not.

Allison nodded, completely agreeing. "I tend to stay quiet in his class," she said. What Allison didn't say was that she was quiet in every class. This whole situation was so foreign to her, but she seemed to be doing a pretty good job at dealing with it. It was just a friendly conversation, after all.

Allison thought for a moment. Did she have a favorite subject? She enjoyed most of her classes a lot. "I really enjoy Transfiguration. It's pretty fascinating, I think," she said. She liked the idea that you could transform things into almost whatever you wanted.

Ian smiled warmly at the Ravenclaw. He could easily imagine her staying quiet in Snape's class. Everyone stayed quiet in his class! It was either that, or lose so many points for your house that they would end up in the negatives, he thought smirking.
"I didn't have transfiguration yet, but it really sounds quite interesting. I already checked out my textbook for this term and the subjects that are covered really intigue me a lot." Ian told her. The thought of being able to turn inanimate object into animals was the most fascinating one.
"But I guess, it needs a lot of concentration, right? That will probably be hard for some students." he chuckled, thinking of some of the Gryffindors.

Allison laughed a little. "I suppose," she said. She thought of her brother trying to focus enough to do well in transfiguration. The thought amused her. "But with enough practice, it gets a lot easier. Look at Professor McGonagall, it seems second nature to her." Allison had spent a lot of her time working on transfiguration, and she found that it was always easier with practice. Then again, Allison had a much larger attention span than most of her peers.

Ian nodded thoughtfully. "I truely hope so. I promised my parents to do well in class and I'm willing to work hard." he said honestly. He didn't mind practicing and he usually would not be thrown off something only because he had to spend more time working on it.
"Maybe we could practice together one of these days?" Ian asked the Ravenclaw with a hopeful expression on his face. She would probably be able to teach him quite a few tricks, seeing as she was a year older than him.

Allison raised her eyebrows, a bit surprised at the offer. Her first instinct was to turn him down, but she knew that wasn't the polite thing to do. "Sure," she said. "I'm almost always free, so whenever you'd like to get together will be fine." Allison was proud of herself. She had made a friend.

Ian grinned happily at the girl, glad that she had agreed. "That would be brilliant! I always thought it is much better to study together than on your own. That way you can question each other to see if you got everything right." he said excitedly.
He was slightly confused that the Ravenclaw seemed surprised at his question, but maybe it had come a bit sudden, seeing as they had just met each other, but Ian was always open to make new friendships and the other student seemed to be very nice and easy to get along with.
"Maybe we could meet tomorrow after our last lesson?" Ian suggested. "Or if you still got some time, we could just sit down here somewhere and get a head start?" He raised his brow in question and pointed to one of the benches in the yard. Luckily, the weather was still nice enough to be outside, even if the sun was already slowly going down.

Allison thought for a moment, choosing what she should do. "I've got some time," she said to him. She didn't have any plans for the rest of the day, so why not start now? Studying seemed to be the best activity for Allison, since it was what she was going to end up doing anyways. "So, what do want to practice?" she asked Ian.

Ian smiled at Allison and walked over to one of the benches where he sat down and pulled out his transfiguration book. "Maybe you could help be a bit with this spell here?" he said, opening his book on the chapter about the "avifors" spell. He had read about that spell during his ride on the Hogwarts Express, but he had not yet tried it. The thought of turning an object into a real bird was exciting, but Ian had no doubt that it would be a complicated thing to achieve, especially as this would be his first transfiguration.

Allison took a look at the book and remembered it immediately. "Oh this one," she said. "It's rather complicated when you're first learning it, but once you get it, then it's simple." She took out her wand and a quill from her bag. She placed the notebook on the ground in front of them. "Okay, now watch carefully." She pointed her wand at the notebook and said "Avifors." With a flash of blue light, the notebook became a little bird. The bird flew off quickly and Allison turned back to Ian. "Now, you're turn."

Biting his lip in concentration, Ian inched foward a bit, to watch closely how the Ravenclaw performed the spell. She cast it flawlessly, just as it had been described in the book and he gaped slightly in amazement. "Wow, that was brilliant, Allison!" he exclaimed and beamed at her. She made it look so easy!
Pulling out his wand, Ian cleared his throat and pointed his wand at the quill. "Avi-FORS!" he pronounced awkwardly and a pale light shot out of his wand, but the quill remained the same. "Aww..." Ian's face fell dejectedly.

Allison shook her head. "You're saying it wrong," she said. "It's AH-vifors, not Avi-FORS." Allison tried not to sound rude, as she was just trying to help. "Try it again." Allison took a step back, just in case something went wrong. She didn't think it would, but she could never be too sure.

Ian looked up at Allison again as she explained what he had been doing wrong. So the pronounciation was on the first syllabe not the last. "Alright...okay, let me try again." he said nodding and pointed his wand once more at the quill. This time, he made sure to say the incantation just like she had done before. "AH-vifors!"
A blue light, much brighter than the first time, shot out of his wand and hit the quill which slowly began to change form. "It works!" Ian exclaimed excitedly and watched as a small bird appeared where just seconds before the quill had been laying.